Author: kmf17

What do the Cavs have to do with Case Western Reserve University’s 2010 Distinguished Lecture by renowned author and engineer Henry Petroski? From the hoops to LeBron James’ shoes, basketball evolved into a high-powered sport from James Naismith’s game idea for two peach baskets and a soccer ball.

Basketball is among topics Petroski tackles from an engineer’s perspective on the design of products and ideas. Petroski will address these issues during his free public talk, “Engineering and Civilization: Bridges, Infrastructure and Sources of Success and Failure,” on Wednesday, March 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Severance Hall, 11001 Euclid Ave.

“Desire, not the necessity, is the mother of invention,” Petroski said in the opening of his book, “Success through Failure: The Paradox of Design.” It’s the drive for something better or newer than what’s available, he adds.

Even long-term success can lead to failure. It has happened with bridge failures, which appear nearly every 30 years. He’s also found that other products, such as the literary novel, fall into the 30-year cycle.

“Following models of success, without a historical context, more often than not, can lead to failure,” Petronski stated.

Petroski, the Aleksandar S. Vesic Professor of Civil Engineering and professor of history at Duke University, has written 15 books. Among his works are “The Pencil,” “The Toothpick” and “The Evolution of Useful Things” and his memoir “Paperboy.”

Unanticipated failures can result even with highly tested, reliable products, he said, especially when used in creative ways. Petroski illustrates in “Success through Failure” this concept with an example from personal experience. He used a flexible Band-Aid to mark a spot on his rug that needed cleaning. Easily removed from human skin, the Band-Aid nearly had the sticking power of Super Glue on his rug.

Arthur Heuer, Case Western Reserve University Kyocera Professor of Materials in the Case School of Engineering and a member of the CWRU Distinguished Lecture Committee, said Petroski can relate to the lay public or technologically trained professionals.

“Henry Petroski has an unusual ability to make the beauty and creativity involved in the fabrication of humble objects, such as the ordinary pencil and paper clip, and impressive engineering structures essential to society, such as massive bridges, transparent to his readers,” Heuer says.

Beyond enlightening audiences with his witty talks and engaging books, Petroski is a licensed professional engineer in Texas, a chartered engineer in Ireland, a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers where he chairs the History and Heritage Committee, and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Engineers, Ireland.

His honors include the Washington Award from the Western Society of Engineers, the History and Heritage Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Ralph Coats Roe Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

For reservations and free tickets, call the Severance Hall Box Office at 216-231-1111. Go online for more information.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Renowned contemporary composer Pierre Boulez will participate in a talk titled “A Conversation with Pierre Boulez” on Friday, Feb. 5, at 4:30 p.m. in Harkness Chapel. The talk is presented by the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities. Boulez will be in dialogue with Mary Davis, chair of the Case Western Reserve University Department of Music.

The program is free and open to the public. Online registration is recommended.

In addition to the Baker-Nord sponsored conversation, Boulez will be making a conducting appearance with The Cleveland Orchestra as a part of events around the world celebrating Boulez’s 85th birthday.

A renowned composer and conductor, Boulez is an international advocate for modernist music. A founder of IRCAM (Insitut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique) at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, he held the Chair in “Invention, Technique et Langage en Musique” at the College de France from 1976-1995. He has close ties to The Cleveland Orchestra, where he served as musical advisor from 1970-72 and appears regularly as a guest conductor.

This program, the first annual lecture in memory of Walter A. Strauss (1923-2008), who was the Elizabeth and William T. Treuhaft Professor of Humanities, is generously supported by funds provided by the Paul Wurzburger Endowment.

Born in 1925, Boulez can look back on nearly six decades of activity focused on making music an essential part of the contemporary world. His first compositions date back to the mid-1940s and his “Second Piano Sonata” (1947-48), a work of Beethovenian range and power, marked his creative coming of age.

After his compositional output decreased, he began appearing more and more frequently as a conductor. At first he specialized in twentieth-century music, especially in his work with the Domaine Musical organization he had founded in Paris, but by the end of the 1960s he had conducted Wagner in Bayreuth, Beethoven in London and Machaut in Los Angeles. In 1971 he was appointed music director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, posts he held until 1975 and 1977 respectively.

In the mid-1970s, Boulez decided to reduce his conducting commitments drastically in order to concentrate on work at IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music he founded at the request of President Georges Pompidou. There, his contacts with computer technicians and musicians were brought to bear on the composition of “Ré pons,” followed by another electronic project, “…explosante-fixe..”. for Midi-flute, two solo-flutes, ensemble and electronics.

Now conducting once again on a regular basis, Boulez has created a close relationship with outstanding American and European orchestras, including The Cleveland Orchestra. Amongst many others, he conducted the inaugural concert of the Cité de la musique at La Villette, a four orchestra Boulez-Festival in Tokyo, and prestigious worldwide tours with the London Symphony Orchestra celebrating his 70th, 75th and 80th birthdays.

After signing an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 1992, Boulez devoted a considerable amount of his time to recording important works of the 20th century. His recordings earned more than 25 Grammys, as well as the European Gramophone-, Echo- or Deutscher Schallplatten-Awards. At the same time that he continued his work as composer, writing “Incises,” “sur Incises,” “Anthé mes 2,” “Notations VII,” “Dé rive 2,” he assumed the composer’s chair at Carnegie Hall and is conductor emeritus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Acclaimed worldwide, he has received numerous prizes (Siemens Foundation/Germany, Leonie Sonning/Denmark, Praemium Imperiale/Japan, Polar Music Prize/Sweden, Wolf Prize/Israel, Grawemeyer Award/USA…) and honorary doctorates.

For more information, contact Keli Schimelpfenig, manager, performing arts marketing and events, at 368-1160, or go online.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Case Western Reserve University and Western Reserve Historical Society have joined forces to collaborate on a number of library and archival projects to build and enrich the offerings at the two institutions.

The University Circle institutions entered a memorandum of understanding to pilot a number of small projects in 2010, linking one of the nation’s largest urban history collections at the Historical Society with the digitizing capabilities and knowledge at the research university.

These projects have the potential to set the stage for a long-term partnership to share resources that complement the institutions’ existing collections.

“The agreement is the beginning for some fantastic things in the future,” said Timothy Robson, deputy director of the Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve.

John Grabowski, historian and vice president for collections at WRHS and CWRU’s Krieger-Mueller Associate Professor of Applied History, agreed. “I’m excited about the possibilities this offers the two institutions because it combines current CWRU academic priorities with the rich research resources of WRHS.”

WRHS is home to 5,000 fully catalogued collections ranging from a few papers in some to more than 400 boxes in others. The Historical Society has 20 million manuscripts and more than 5 million of photographs, maps, broadsides and other printed materials.

“The Historical Society’s primary research materials overlap with CWRU’s strategic plan initiatives in many areas,” Grabowski said. “This includes social justice, business and entrepreneurship, medicine, and histories of the numerous ethnic, cultural, religious and identity groups in our region such as the Jewish community and LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender).”

The Kelvin Smith Library with its digital technologies and cataloguing capabilities has the ability to help the Historical Society move those vast collections into the digital realm for more people to access and use as resources.

Grabowski, Robson and a group of librarians from each institution wrote the memorandum to launch such first-year projects as:

• Taking an inventory of all the equipment related to digitizing and microfilming at the two institutions,
• Sharing cataloguing tools,
• Applying for Pell work/study funds to support a student assistant at one or both institutions,
• Digitizing a small but high priority body of materials from WRHS’s collection to add to Digital Case and sharing on popular online systems like Flickr, and
• Selecting and digitizing a body of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender materials from the WRHS for addition to Digital Case.

In September, the group will examine the first-year outcomes and discuss future plans.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

The inaugural group of employees to attain the Case Western Reserve University Administrative Professional Series (CAPS) program Certificate of Achievement in Financial Management were recently recognized.

“Of approximately 2,700 staff, you are the first 10,” John Sideras, senior vice president and chief financial officer, told the inaugural class. “You represent accomplishment, great performance and promotability. We honor your leadership and thank you for your great efforts.”

The recipients are (pictured left to right in the photo):

• Janean Hite, College of Arts and Sciences;
• Karen Dunn, Office of Sponsored Projects;
• Agnes Torontali, Department of Astronomy;
• Carol Beck, Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine,
• Mary Lou Budziak, Corporate Relations;
• Monica Bradley, Office of Sponsored Projects;
• Heidi Butler, Facilities Planning;
• Cindy Lepouttre, Case School of Engineering;
• Pamela White, Research Administration; and
• Patricia Maar, Department of Communications Sciences (not pictured)

Lolita Hines, John Sideras and Stacy Mitchell (seated left to right) served as CAPS program sponsors.

CAPS is a training and development program that focuses on educating individuals on the financial management of administrative units at the university. The series of courses provide valuable information on working with general departmental accounting, sponsored projects, purchasing, PeopleSoft Financials and other areas. The program is open to all full-time and part-time university employees. Learn more.

School of Medicine Receives Six Department of Defense Grants

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has been awarded six Department of Defense (DOD) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) grants for innovative medical research. The grants, totaling nearly $2.8 million, will advance research in the field of breast cancer.

Case Western Reserve School of Medicine investigators received three postdoctoral awards and three Idea Awards. The three postdoctoral awards were granted to Steven Sizemore, Ph.D., to further his research of FoxC1 in basal-type breast cancer; to Melissa Shelton, Ph.D., and her study of LM04 and estrogen responsiveness; and to Nirmala Krishnamurthy, Ph.D., for her research on the role of estrogen receptor beta and hPMC2 in breast cancer.

The School of Medicine faculty members receiving Idea Awards include Mark Jackson, Ph.D., for his analysis of FAM83D, a novel oncogene in breast cancer; M. Edward Medof, M.D., Ph.D., for his study of the augmentation of antitumor T-Cell responses by increasing APC T-Cell C5a/C3a-C5aR interactions; and to Ruth Keri, Ph.D., for her study of p120ctn and breast cancer metastasis.

“Through the efforts of these six investigators, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is now developing a body of high-level scientists in breast cancer research. The Idea Awards are highly competitive and these dollars represent one of the biggest investments Case Western Reserve has made in breast cancer research,” says Stanton L. Gerson, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Director of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Dr. Gerson is a practicing oncologist and Director of the Ireland Cancer Center at University Hospitals.

Since its inception in 1992, Congress has allocated nearly $5 billion through Fiscal Year 2009 across all research programs, including breast cancer. The CDMRP programs consist of awards given to extramural investigators that are selected through a two-tier external peer-review process that includes scientists, clinicians, and consumer advocates. The U.S. Army, on behalf of the DOD, administers a set of biomedical research programs that support basic, translational, and clinical research projects; research training; and research infrastructure for specific diseases identified by Congress.

In 1992, a highly visible lobbying campaign by grassroots advocacy organizations increased awareness among policymakers of the need to expand funding for breast cancer research. These consumer groups emphasized the need to fund research in ways that were different from those employed by traditional medical research organizations such as the National Institutes of Health. In response, the United States Congress allocated specific funds for breast cancer research in the DOD appropriations budget. The DOD was chosen because of its long history in performing medical research studies and because its administrative structure was designed for flexible and quick responses to changing needs and priorities. The success of this effort has resulted in an increase in the number of disease research programs for which Congress has mandated funding through the DOD.

For more information contact Jessica E. Studeny, 216.368.4692.

For more information contact Christina DeAngelis, 216.368.3635.

The academic fields and disciplines of the 2009-2010 Glennan Fellows vary as widely as the projects in which they are engaged.

Awarded each spring, Glennan Fellowships are administered by the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) and designed to reward excellence in faculty and to nurture their growth as teachers and scholars. Each Glennan Fellow has been awarded $6, 500 to be used toward their projects.

This year’s Fellows are Mehmet Koyuturk, electrical engineering and computer science; Nico Lacetera, economics; Mohan Sankaran, chemical engineering; Daniel Tisch, epidemiology and biostatistics; and Horst von Recum, biomedical engineering.

Case Daily will feature each of the 2009-10 award recipients’ projects.

Mehmet Koyuturk, T. & D. Schroeder Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering

Project: “Learning Bioinformatics Together: Development of Active Learning Strategies to Face the Challenges of Interdisciplinary Education”

As a Glennan Fellow, Koyuturk plans to develop and implement a number of active learning strategies in bioinformatics.

“The last few decades have witnessed the evolution of science from a cohort of disciplines with distinct focus areas into a collective, interdisciplinary effort on generating knowledge,” Koyuturk wrote about his project. “An excellent example for ‘interdisciplinarization’ comes from biology, where the influence of human genome project transforms hypothesis-driven research into data-driven research, giving rise to new disciplines such as bioinformatics and systems biology. lnterdisciplinary research requires (and enables) interdisciplinary education, presenting unique challenges and opportunities in training the next generation of scientists, professionals and intellectuals.”

Koyuturk and Matthew M. Ruffalo, a computer engineering graduate and master’s student, plan to implement a “bioinformatics workbench,” which will serve as a soft laboratory for students. Undergraduate and graduate students will evaluate existing tools for biological data analysis, test their own ideas and visualize their observations to demonstrate their point of view.

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

A search advisory committee for a Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations executive director and Mandel Professor is making progress in the search for a new leader to helm the center.

Grover “Cleve” Gilmore, dean of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, is the committee’s chair.

Steven Feldman, professor of marketing and policy studies at the Weatherhead School of Management, has been named interim director. His major areas of teaching focus on business ethics and nonprofit ethics and trusteeship. In 2007, he was awarded the Fulbright Distinguished Lectureship in Business Ethics at Shanghai International Studies University. Feldman, who has been on the faculty at Case Western Reserve since 1983, also is a member of the Mandel Center Faculty Council.

Feldman will serve as interim director through June.

The interim director position was previously held by John A. Yankey, Leonard W. Mayo Professor Emeritus of Family and Child Welfare at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Yankey, who came to the university in 1973 and participated in the Mandel Center’s establishment, agreed to helm the center on a temporary basis while a search committee was formed.

“We are grateful to Professor Yankey for his outstanding service as the interim executive director,” said Lynn Singer, deputy provost and vice president for academic programs. “We are pleased that Professor Feldman will take on these responsibilities during this important time as we search for the executive director.”

Himmelfarb Group, an executive search firm, is assisting in the national search. Refer nominations for the executive director to [email protected].

In addition to Gilmore and Singer, the search advisory committee members are:

• Laura Chisolm, Professor, School of Law
• Henry Goodman, Chairman and CEO, H. Goodman, Inc.
• David Hammack, Professor of History, College of Arts and Sciences
• Jean Kilgore, Senior Lecturer, Weatherhead School of Management
• Danny Williams, Executive Director, Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland
• May Wykle, Dean, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
• Deb Yandala, CEO, Cuyahoga Valley National Park Association
• Alison Baranowski, President, Student Leadership Committee
• Susan Himmelfarb, Principal, Himmelfarb Group

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

The newly formed American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) will have its virtual home at Case Western Reserve University’s Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences over the next three years.

Claudia Coulton, the Lillian F. Harris Professor of social work and co-director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at the social work school, has been named one of the founding fellows. She also is the inaugural treasurer of the organization to advance the social work profession.

Since last January, Grover “Cleve” Gilmore, dean of the social work school, was part of a six-member Academy Working Group that wrote the AASWSW’s mission statement. The group set the organization on its future course by naming six individuals, including Coulton, to be its first leaders and charged them with growing the organization by selecting some of the first members.

“For a number of years, I’ve been a proponent of having this type of academy,” said Gilmore. “It supports the social work profession in ways similar to the professional organizations that scientists and engineers have with their National Academies of Science and Engineering.”

In addition to CWRU, representatives from Washington University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Washington, University of Illinois and the University of Michigan served on the working group.

The Academy’s mission is to:

• Encourage and recognize outstanding research, scholarship, and practice that contribute to a sustainable, equitable, and just future;
• Inform social policy by serving as a frontline source of information for the social work profession as well as Congress and other government agencies and non-government entities charged with advancing the public good;
• Promote the examination of social policy and the application of research to test alternative policies, programs, and practices for their impact on society; and
• Celebrate excellence in social work and social welfare research, education, and practice.

In addition to Coulton’s role as treasurer, the founding AASWSW officers are Richard P. Barth (University of Maryland), president; Barbara W. White (University of Texas), secretary; and members Paula Allen-Meares (University of Illinois chancellor), Peter J. Pecora (University of Washington), and Enola Proctor (Washington University).

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

A team graduate students from the Weatherhead School of Management proved their talent in making a deal with first-place honors at a competition involving an M&A (mergers and acquisition) case.

The Cleveland Chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) invited teams of graduate students from Case Western Reserve, Baldwin Wallace, Cleveland State, Kent State and Ohio State University. Case Western Reserve had two teams in the competition held Jan. 15 at The Union Club in downtown Cleveland.

The teams participated in an analysis of a real-world merger case developed by Houlihan Lokey, a national investment banking firm. That case was used in ACG regional competitions held across the United States.

Case Western’s Reserve’s faculty coach, Scott Fine, professor for the practice of banking and finance, was permitted to provide a brief valuation and presentation review session prior to the case being released.

At the end of the event, first-place and second-place honors were announced. The first-place team included Weatherhead students Brice Banctel, Alex Manders, Nick Perini and Keith Rohr.

Ohio State won second place.

Also in the competition were Weatherhead students Oswin Anthony, Junling Chen, Ming Lin and Fabian Sandi.

"Both teams did an outstanding job and represented themselves and the school ably and proudly," Fine said about the two Weatherhead teams.

In the competition, each team made a presentation to a group that role played a board of directors and family owners of a target company. The teams had 20 minutes to present to the panel of judges composed of senior professionals from investment banking, consulting and private equity firms.

First place is a cash prize, an all-expenses paid trip to Miami for InterGrowth 2010 (the national ACG conference to be held in May) and an invitation to the Cleveland ACG Deal Maker’s Award dinner.

For more information contact Marv Kropko, 216.368.6890.

Yiping Han, a researcher from the Department of Periodontics at Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, reports the first documented link between a mother, 35, with pregnancy-associated gum disease to the death of her fetus.

The findings are discussed in the article, “Term Stillbirth Caused by Oral Fusobacterium nucleatum,” in the February issue of “Obstetrics & Gynecology.”

An internet search in 2008 led a friend of a mother, who had just delivered a stillborn baby, to Han’s research lab—one of the few in the world working on understanding the role variations of the oral bacteria, Fusobacterium nucleatum, have on pre-term labor and stillbirths.

The mother delivered her fullterm baby at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., at 39 weeks and five days.

During the mother’s pregnancy (her first), she told Han she experienced excessive gum bleeding, a symptom of pregnancy-associated gingivitis. Approximately 75 percent of pregnant women experience gum bleeding due to the hormonal changes during pregnancy.

“There is an old wives’ tale that you lose a tooth for each baby, and this is due to the underlying changes during pregnancy,” said Han, “but if there is another underlying condition in the background, then you may lose more than a tooth but a baby.”

Bleeding associated with the gingivitis allowed the bacteria, normally contained to the mouth because of the body’s defense system, to enter the blood and work its way to the placenta.

Even though the amniotic fluid was not available for testing, Han suspects from work with animal models that the bacteria entered the immune-free amniotic fluid and eventually ingested by the baby.

Han says normally a mother’s immune system takes care of the bacteria in the blood before it reaches the placenta. But in this case, the mother also experienced an upper respiratory infection like a cold and low-grade fever just a few days before the stillbirth.

“The timing is important here because it fits the time frame of hematogenous (through the blood) spreading we observed in animals,” Han said.

Postmortem microbial studies of the baby found the presence of F. nucleatum in the lungs and stomach. The baby had died from a septic infection and inflammation caused by bacteria.

After questioning the mother about her health during the pregnancy, Han arranged for her to visit a periodontist, who collected plaque samples from her teeth.

Using DNA cloning technologies, Han found a match in the bacterium in the mother’s mouth with the bacterium in the baby’s infected lungs and stomach.

Han also ruled out by testing bacteria from the vaginal and rectal areas, which did not show the presence of F. nucleatum.

“The testing strongly suggested the bacteria were delivered through the blood,” Han said.

With preventative periodontal treatment and oral health care, the mother has since given birth to a healthy baby.

Han, who has spent the past decade taking her oral bacteria research from the lab to the bedside, says this points again to the growing importance of good oral health care.

In addition to this direct link from the mother to her baby, oral bacteria have been associated with heart disease, diabetes and arthritis.

The researcher suggests women, who are considering a pregnancy, seek dental care to take care of any oral health problems before getting pregnant. If pregnant, she encourages expectant moms to practice good oral health and alert the doctor to any gum bleeding.

Collaborating with Han on the case study were Yann Fardini, Casey Chen, Karla G. Iacampo, Victoria A. Peraino, Jaime Shamonki and Raymond W. Redline. The study had support from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Case Western Reserve University is in the process of adopting Google Apps for Education.

Google Apps consists of a number of different applications such as e-mail, calendars, document preparation, Web sites and more.

“Google offers these services for free to educational institutions,” said Jeffrey Gumpf, chief information technology architect at Case Western Reserve. “Google Apps is implemented in the ‘software as a service’ (SAAS) model. In a SAAS model, the vendor operates and maintains the software applications, which comprise the service as well as the systems (servers, storage, data centers, etc.) on which the applications run,” he explained.

All @case.edu e-mail accounts need to transition from mail.case.edu (iPlanet) to webmail.case.edu (Google mail) by Jan. 31. Learn more.

One of the advantages of Google Apps for Case Western Reserve is that Information Technology Services (ITS) does not need to maintain the application software, infrastructure or data center environment required to run these services. Another advantage to the SAAS model is that the vendor can more easily update and improve its services than would be possible if the services were implemented locally.

Google regularly updates and adds functionality to the services it offers.

“This is particularly useful in the situation where the service is essentially ‘commodity,’ which means the service is widely used and universally available and not something that is specific to the institution,” Gumpf said. “ITS can free both human and fiscal resources from supporting these commodity services. We can spend those resources instead to support services that are more unique to CWRU and that aren’t cost effectively available otherwise.”

Gumpf said ITS consulted with the Council of Technology Officers and explored a number of alternatives for collaborative environments supporting these services before selecting Google Apps.

While the public has made accommodations for 54.4 million people with disabilities, many researchers regularly exclude people who cannot read, hear or write from participating in their research projects. But that’s about to change.

The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing (FPB) will develop research tools and strategies to include individuals with vision and hearing impairments in future research. The SMART Center at the nursing school will present its first FIND Lab Workshop from 8 a.m. to noon, Tuesday, Feb. 9, in the Thwing Center ballroom.

Shirley Moore, Edward J. and Louise Mellen Professor of Nursing and director of the National Institutes of Health-funded Center for Self-Management Research (SMART Center) at FPB, is the lead investigator for the two-year, nearly $400,000 National Institute for Nursing Research-funded project, “Full Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (FIND) in Self-Management Research.”

Researchers are surprised to learn they are omitting disabled people from their research, but the workshop will highlight why it is important to include persons with disabilities, how to include them and how to modify research methods for people with visual and hearing challenges.

Moore is working with co-investigator Ann Williams, National Institute of Health-supported postdoctoral fellow, who has been working on a health-related research project with blind diabetics.

Williams’ work inspired Moore.

The study is built on the Principles of Universal Design, developed for school teachers to tailor school work for children with special needs.

FIND will bring together a collaboration of experts from the Cleveland Sight Center and the Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center along with researchers in engineering, teaching and rehabilitation specialists of persons with disabilities and communication scientists. The center will also draw from available technologies at the university’s Prevention Research Center and Behavior Measurement Core Facilities, and from other universities and self-management centers around the country.

Staff from the sight and hearing centers will conduct workshops for researchers. During these sessions, researchers will learn about communication technologies for the blind and hearing impaired that can be used to gather data for their research projects.
FIND will also establish a demonstration center, the FIND Lab, where tactile, hearing and other tools to assist participants can be tried and used for practice by researchers or their assistants gathering the data.

“It is important that we do research representative of the people being studied,” says Moore, citing that 15 percent of diabetics are visually impaired but regularly barred from participating in research about their chronic illness because they have problems seeing.

When everyone has a chance to participate, overall research findings will be more robust and reduce bias in studies, says Moore.

If interested in attending, contact Heather C. Terry at to RSVP. Light refreshments will be served.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Volunteers at Case Western Reserve University will get a chance to do vitally important community service and get money to families who most need it by taking part in The Weatherhead Tax Assistance Program.

A required first training session for volunteers is Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in Room 201 of the Peter B. Lewis Building. Although advance sign-up is appreciated, walk-ins are also welcome. The training session Saturday will include a provided lunch, a reason advance notice is helpful. Volunteers should bring laptop computers with them.

Anyone on campus can volunteer to help with free tax preparation, and often a big benefit is helping low-income families in the Cleveland area who qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit to get funds the federal government makes available to them.

Volunteers also can help international students on campus navigate a tax structure they might not fully understand and might find intimidating. The service is open to anyone in the campus community.

An advanced training session will be held from 9 to 11 a.m., Friday, Jan. 29.

Organizer Rachel Yanich, a Masters of Accountancy student at Weatheread School of Management, says the program gives volunteers valuable experience in tax preparation using software the IRS supplies. Training certification makes possible also volunteering at similar community service tax preparation programs throughout the Cleveland area through The Cuyahoga County Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition.

The Earned Income Tax Credit is available to low-income working adults, and the volunteer effort exists largely because of estimates that between 15 and 20 percent of those eligible, including those with children, do not claim it.

A year ago about 80 people came to the first training session, and Yanich hopes even more will volunteer this year.

“It’s a way you can give back a lot, just by doing someone’s taxes. They can help people get back some money they might not otherwise even see,” Yanich said. “I definitely think volunteering is very beneficial especially if you are an accounting student, because it’s hands on experience without doing an internship.”

Contact Rachel Yanich for details or go online for further information about the community effort.

For more information contact Marv Kropko, 216.368.6890.

Contributions to Case Western Reserve University’s 2009 Charity Choice Campaign have been tallied, and faculty and staff have once again answered the call to assist people and organizations in need of a helping hand.

Employees donated a total of $204,308 from September to December 2009, surpassing the university’s goal of raising $200,000.

“We thank you for participating in this year’s campaign. You–along with your charity of choice–are making an ongoing difference in our community,” said Charity Choice Campaign co-chairs W. A. “Bud” Baeslack III, provost and executive vice president, and Lev S. Gonick, vice president for information technology services and chief information officer.

Through the Charity Choice Campaign each fall, members of the campus community can designate a donation to three umbrella agencies that distribute funds to hundreds of local and national agencies:

• United Way of Greater Cleveland is the leading convener and funder of partnerships focused on solutions for the community’s health and human service priorities. United Way makes a difference in the lives of 450,000 people throughout Greater Cleveland. The agency supports more than 175 programs.
• Greater Cleveland Community Shares is the only Northeast Ohio workplace-giving federation focused on advocacy and social change. It is the second largest fund of its kind in the country. For 21 years, its member organizations have worked to meet community needs and support social justice through advocacy, education and empowerment.
• Earth Share Ohio (ESO) is a federation working to raise donations for local, regional and national nonprofit conservation and environmental organizations. ESO beneficiary organizations strive to protect the future for all citizens by providing vital services in the areas of environmental education, pollution prevention, recreation and trails and natural resources conservation.

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

Cornea Donor Study Investigator Group Finds Preoperative Cell Density Not a Factor in Success

A new predictor of cornea transplant success has been identified by the Cornea Donor Study (CDS) Investigator Group. New analysis of data from the 2008 Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study (SMAS), a subset of the CDS, found that the preoperative donor cell count of endothelial cells, previously considered to be an important predictor of a successful transplant, did not correlate with graft success. Instead the study found that a patient’s endothelial cell count six months post-cornea transplant is a better indicator of subsequent failure of the graft rather than the donor’s cell count. These results offer an additional, reliable indicator of success that surgeons can use for monitoring patients at the six-month milestone after transplantation.

Endothelial cells form the back layer of the cornea and keep the cornea clear and prevent it from swelling. Previously it was thought that the more endothelial cells/mm2 in the donor cornea, the better, which put pressure on the eye banks to have donors with the highest count possible to distribute to corneal surgeons. However, the SMAS findings show no correlation between it and a patient’s graft success rate five-years post transplant, as long as the industry standard minimum of 2,000 cells/mm2 was met. The results of this study are published in the January issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

“These new findings of the SMAS are excellent examples of evidence-based medicine impacting clinical practice,” says Jonathan H. Lass, M.D., senior author of the study and professor and chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “This evidence offers surgeons a broader pool of donors for their patients and will allow more individuals to donate to eye banks.” The results were analyzed at the Specular Microscopy Reading Center, part of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Case Western Reserve University and the University Hospitals Eye Institute.

Conceived in 1998, the CDS is a prospective cohort study that has already reported: 1) The age of the donor does not impact transplant survival after five years for conditions with moderate risk for graft failure due to endothelial dysfunction (Fuchs’ dystrophy, pseudophakic/aphakic corneal edema) (Ophthalmology 2008); 2) Incompatibility of blood type between the donor and recipient also does not impact graft survival at five years (Am J Ophthalmology 2009); and 3) There was a trend toward greater endothelial cell loss (75 percent) in the older donor age group (over 65 years to 75 years of age) than the younger donor age group (under 65 years) (69 percent), but this difference did not impact graft survival at five years (Ophthalmology 2008). This NIH-funded study has been extended through 2012 in order to determine whether these findings persist for a total of ten years post-transplant.

“The more than 100 physicians and researchers involved in the Cornea Donor Study have been leading the effort to identify factors that will keep donated corneas clearer for longer,” says Roy W. Beck, M.D., Ph.D., the principal investigator of the Cornea Donor Study Investigator Group and Executive Director of the Jaeb Center for Health Research in Tampa, Florida.

Additional support for CDS was provided by: Eye Bank Association of America, Bausch & Lomb, Inc., Tissue Banks International, Vision Share, Inc., San Diego Eye Bank, The Cornea Society, Katena Products, Inc., ViroMed Laboratories, Inc., Midwest Eye-Banks (Michigan Eye-Bank, Illinois Eye-Bank), Konan Medical Corporation, Eye Bank for Sight Restoration, SightLife, Sight Society of Northeastern New York (Lions Eye Bank of Albany), and Lions Eye Bank of Oregon.

For more information contact Jessica E. Studeny, 216.368.4692.

For more information contact Christina DeAngelis, 216.368.3635.

The Case Western Reserve University community is being encouraged to “use less and recycle the rest.”

That’s the theme for RecycleMania, an annual nationwide competition among colleges and universities. The 10-week event pits schools against each other to see which ones can motivate their campus communities to adopt and increase sustainable practices.

Case Western Reserve will kick off the competition with an event from noon to 1:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 15, in the Thwing Center atrium. The overall competition is from January 17 through March 27. The event will feature sustainability information, as well as free giveaways and food.

“Our goal is to beat last year’s numbers,” said Gene Matthews, director of facilities services. In 2009, Case Western Reserve finished near the top in the Waste Minimization category. This year “we want to win in all categories,” Matthews explained.

The university aims to be “climate neutral,” and RecycleMania is just one aspect of that commitment.

In related sustainability efforts, the Department of Facilities Services is introducing new recycling/waste stations. Graduate students Anand Natarajan, Amie Scarpitti and David Madcharo from Matthew Sobel’s Sustainable Operations class spent fall semester studying ways to increase campus sustainability efforts. The students discovered that the recycling bins and trash cans in most buildings were not near each other, which led to trash and food items ending up in the recycled paper bins.

Most campus community members do not realize that tossing that half cup of coffee or food items into a recycling bin earmarked for paper results in contamination. Recycling companies will not accept the contaminated items, meaning paper initially set for recycling ends up as trash.

“People are going to go to the most convenient locations,” Matthews acknowledged. That’s why he and his team are in the process of rolling out the new recycling/waste stations, which consist of flip top bins for paper located right next to bins for plastic/aluminum and trash. There also is a slot for cardboard.

The hope is that the convenience factor of having the containers side by side will result in a higher percentage of items being placed into the correct bins. Matthews and his team are asking campus community members to become more aware of placing items in the correct bins. Another new aspect is that white paper and color /mixed fiber paper can now be placed in the same bin. Campus members no longer need to separate different types of paper.

The university currently recycles 30 tons per month. The goal is to reach 50 tons per month. Matthews said the new recycling stations and more awareness about where to dispose of items could help the university reach that goal.

“Everyone can do a little bit, which could make a major overall difference,” Matthews said.

Natarajan, one of the graduate students who conducted the study, said of the national competition: “I would hope that RecycleMania at Case generates enough awareness and commitment to campus sustainable practices—and recycling in particular—that endure beyond the competition’s 10 week time-frame.”

The RecycleMania competition began in 2001. According to the College and University Recycling Council (CURC), which oversees RecycleMania, surveys have indicated that 80 percent of participating schools experienced a noticeable increase in recycling collection during the competition. Case Western Reserve’s recycling rate during last year’s RecycleMania was around 15 percent (as measured by dividing the total recyclables by weight over the total waste stream including recyclables by weight), a figure Matthews said the university hopes to increase this year by a significant amount.

RecycleMania rankings and results will be posted weekly on the competition Web site and in Case Daily. The university that collects the most recyclable trash and reduces overall campus waste will win the grand prize: A trophy made out recycled materials.

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

The Case Western Reserve University community is rallying together to support victims of the earthquake that nearly destroyed parts of Haiti this week.

Answering the call for help, the Hallinan Project for Peace and Social Justice and the Center for Civic Engagement and Learning (CCEL) are collecting funds to send to Partners in Health, a nonprofit organization that works in Haiti and other parts of the world to provide medical services to the world’s sickest and poorest individuals.

Checks for the Haiti earthquake relief efforts should be made out to Case Western Reserve University and sent to Alice Bach, 105 Mather House, or to Mayo Bulloch, CCEL office in Thwing Center.

Campus community members are also encouraging each other to help in other ways. Omar Gutierrez, an anthropology student, has sent e-mails to his contact lists about the Red Cross mobile text fundraising effort.

“I pray that you are doing what you can in your community to support Haiti,” Gutierrez wrote. “And please be reminded that our support will be needed long after the news cameras have departed.”

Case Daily will provide updates about other campus relief initiatives as information becomes available.

For more information contact Kimyette Finley, 216.368.0521.

Frederick Lewis—producer, director and writer—has traveled to the ends of the world retracing the life adventures and travels of American landscape artist Rockwell Kent for his three-hour documentary.

Case Western Reserve University’s Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities invites the public to view “Rockwell Kent” and hear Lewis answer questions about his experience creating the film. The free, public event begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, January 28, in 306 Clark Hall.

Lewis will talk about what he describes as an “absolutely a life-changing experience.”

“Kent crammed six or seven lifetimes into one,” Lewis said.

A prolific painter and illustrator, Rockwell Kent is best known for capturing on canvas some of the earth’s remote and harsh landscape environments. During the 1930s and 40s, Kent shared the popularity of other artists, like Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell, but has faded into the background of the American art scene.

The Rockwell Kent showing continues the Baker-Nord Center’s yearlong exploration of theme, Cultures of Green: Nature and the Environment—a look at humanities’ role in portraying and understanding nature.

For more than a decade, Lewis, associate professor in the School of Media Arts and Studies at Ohio University, captured images and often stayed at the same sites where Kent created his nature paintings in such faraway places as Greenland, Newfoundland, Alaska, Ireland and Russia.

The inspiration for this film came from Lewis’ first encounter with Kent’s work while spending time in Maine.

Lewis said he was drawn to Kent’s early landscapes of Monhegan Island, Maine, and also his incredible wood engravings that he created to illustrate such classics as Moby Dick, Candide and The Canterbury Tales.

The producer initially set out to do a piece on Rockwell Kent as a regional artist, but now admits he was “naïve” about the artist’s life. The artist became a target of McCarthyism and later sued the U.S. government and won a landmark court case that allows U.S. citizens to travel to countries regardless of their political affiliations.

“It was just the tip of the iceberg story—literally since I also found myself in a helicopter shooting video of icebergs in Greenland,” Lewis said. “It became a true obsession to travel to all of the far flung places Kent visited.”

With visual history of Kent’s private and politically charged public life, Lewis hopes to revive interest in Kent, hailed by CWRU art historian Henry Adams as a “Leonardo da Vinci figure,” who could do many things.

Lewis has worked in producing films for more than 25 years. His work has aired on PBS stations across the country and has been shown at universities and museums, including the National Gallery of Art.

For information, visit http://case.edu/humanities or call 216-368-8961.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Donna Brazile, veteran political strategist, will speak about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. as this year’s featured speaker for Case Western Reserve University’s Annual MLK Celebration Week, January 15-22.

Brazile will give the 2010 MLK Convocation, which begins at 12:30 p.m., on Friday, Jan. 22, in Amasa Stone Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

The New Orleans native has risen to national prominence as an author of the bestselling memoir “Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics”; syndicated columnist for United Media; an on-air political contributor to CNN, National Public Radio and ABC News’ “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”; vice chair of voter registration at the Democratic National Committee; and former chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute.

At the age of nine, Brazile’s lifelong passion for political process and campaigns began with her first public battle to fight for a neighborhood playground. It fueled her involvement, including work on every presidential campaign from 1976 to 2000. She became the first African-American woman to manage a run for the White House as former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign manager.

She has taken that same campaign drive to return to her hometown to rebuild New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation. She has served on the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

Last August, “O, The Oprah Magazine” hailed Brazile as one of its 20 “remarkable visionaries.” She also has made “Essence” magazine’s Top 50 Women in America list and has been honored by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation with its highest award for political achievement.

Go online for information or call 368-2229.

For more information contact Susan Griffith, 216.368.1004.

Michael Scharf, professor of law and director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University, will lead a discussion about his new book, “Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis: The Role of International Law and the State Department Legal Adviser,” at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 13, at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lyndhurst at Legacy Village.

According to publisher Cambridge University Press, the book, which was co-authored by Paul R. Williams, grew out of a series of meetings that Scharf convened with all 10 former U.S. State Department legal advisers – from the Carter Administration to that of George W. Bush.

C-SPAN Book TV is scheduled to cover this event.

Based on insider accounts of the role that international law actually has played during times of crisis, the book explores whether international law is real law or just a form of politics that policymakers are free to ignore whenever they perceive it to be in their interest to do so.

The Cambridge catalog description further states : “Written in a style that will appeal to the casual reader and serious scholar alike, the book includes a foreword by the Obama administration’s State Department legal adviser, Harold Koh; background on the theoretical underpinnings of the compliance debate; an in-depth case study of the treatment of detainees in the war on terror, and a comprehensive glossary of the terms, names, places and events that are discussed in the book.”

In 2004-05, Scharf served as a member of the international team of experts that provided training to the judges of the Iraqi High Tribunal. In 2006 he led the first training session for the investigative judges and prosecutors of the newly established U.N. Cambodia Genocide Tribunal, and in November 2008 he served as Special Assistant to the Prosecutor of the Cambodia Tribunal.

He and co-author Michael A. Newton wrote “Enemy of the State: The Trial and Execution of Saddam Hussein” published in 2008 by St. Martin’s Press.

Scharf is currently co-leader of a USAID-funded project to assist the government of Uganda in establishing a special war crimes chamber and truth commission.